Kathmandu, 21 Nov: The 14th European Union Film Festival in Pokhara is scheduled for Mangsir 6 and 7. The organizers have announced that preparations are complete for the festival, which will be held at the QFX Trade Mall, to bring together renowned European filmmakers, BAFTA-nominated creators from the UK, and emerging Nepali talents on a single platform to celebrate ‘Cinema Without Borders’.
According to Vidhya Maharjan, Press and Information Officer of the EU Delegation to Nepal (EEAS), 25 films will be screened at the festival. These include 10 European feature films, 6 BAFTA-selected short films, and 9 Nepali short films. She mentioned that these films poignantly present stories centered on human experiences such as identity, resistance, memory, hope, and transformation.
The festival will feature excellent films from Portugal’s ‘Banzo’, Finland’s ‘J’vida’, Austria’s ‘Happy’, Hungary’s ‘Without Air’, France-Italy’s ‘The Girl From Tomorrow’, as well as from the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, Switzerland, and Romania.
From the UK, ‘Wander to Wonder’, ‘Rock Paper Scissors’, ‘Maggie’s Christmas’, ‘Milk’, ‘Adios’, and ‘Stomach Bug’ will be screened. Maharjan stated that the 9 Nepali short films—’Chisoghar’, ‘Abis’, ‘Arkestra’, ‘Chandani’, ‘Eternal Kinship’, ‘Grandma’s Magic Comb’, ‘Silent Scars’, ‘The Kathmandu’, and ‘What Grows in the Thar Milej Vegetable Garden’—selected at local and national levels, will highlight Nepali storytelling and aesthetics.
She informed that all screenings will be free of charge, and English subtitles will be available for all films. Programs to strengthen the dialogue between industry, art, and learning will also be conducted in the phase leading up to the festival. A special discussion program titled ‘What Next for the Film Industry?’ will be held on Saturday, Mangsir 6, at 2 PM in collaboration with the British Council. The speakers for this discussion—Gau Maya Gurung, Jasu Gurung, and Praveen Takki Karki—will share experiences gained in the film industry from local to international levels. The program will be moderated by Sunira Pandey.
This festival is organized by the Delegation of the European Union to Nepal in cooperation with the Embassies of France, Germany, Finland, other EU member states, the British Council, and UNESCO.
